Candy Wrapper Recycling Program Gets Canned by Center for the Performing Arts

After three successful seasons, the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State will no longer participate in TerraCycle’s Candy Wrapper Brigade.

The decision to close the candy wrapper collection program is effective immediately.

“I want to congratulate the members of the Green Team here at the center for their good work on this project, and thank all of our partners on campus and in the community,” says George Trudeau, director of the Center for the Performing Arts. “But the circumstances have changed, and it is time now for the volunteers to move on and consider other ways to help the environment.”

TerraCycle provides waste collection for hard-to-recycle materials and turns the waste into affordable green products. As part of its Candy Wrapper Brigade program, points were awarded for each wrapper collected. The points were used to make contributions to non-profit organizations and to cover the cost of shipping the wrappers for recycling.

“Last fall, we were notified that TerraCycle had lost its corporate sponsor for the Candy Wrapper Brigade and would have to discontinue points for charitable purposes and shipping stipends,” says Shannon Bishop, chair of the Center for the Performing Arts Green Team. “We extended the service for one more semester, hoping that TerraCycle would resume the program. We were able to do that with the help of our friends at the UPS Store across from Wegmans, who helped offset the cost of shipping.”

Bishop said the candy wrappers came, in part, from concession sales in the lobby of Eisenhower Auditorium, but also from individuals, churches and schools in Centre and surrounding counties.

In the three years since the center began its program, more than 30,000 wrappers were sent to TerraCycle and kept out of landfills. The program had also earned points used to provide clean water to developing countries, meals to people in need, and school supplies for displaced and at-risk children.

The collection also supported the National Wildlife Federation Adopt-a-Wildlife-Acre program. With the points redeemed from candy wrappers collected in summer and fall 2013, the center was able to provide 81 students with supplies and help protect 2,664 square feet of wildlife land.

“We didn’t want to abruptly end our program and disappoint our friends, so we continued for one extra semester. But TerraCycle is not reviving the Candy Wrapper Brigade program, so we’ve decided to close the program here at the center as well,” Bishop says.

The Green Team is preparing for new projects that will help the center meet its sustainability goal.

You can learn more about the Center for the Performing Arts online at www.cpa.psu.edu.

James Franklin’s Class of 2015 notched commit No. 17 this evening, as three-star linebacker Manny Bowen of New Jersey announced his commitment to Penn State on Twitter.

The 6-foot-2, 202-pound Bowen had offers from Alabama, Miami, Oklahoma, Florida, Oregon, Notre Dame, Michigan State, and other big time programs. A product of Barneget High School, he’s the 34th-ranked linebacker in th